392 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



much lessf-ned by {lippen^inir vviih the sole, I shflll 

 coniimie lo use this until I can find a better. A 

 part of my crop of carrots was sowed upon the 

 same land appropriated for that crop last year; 

 no more manure was applied than in the previous 

 year, and notwithstandins; the severe drought 

 which greatly injured most of our root crops, my 

 crop on this piece of land was nearly double to 

 that of last year. There is no known cause lo 

 which I can atiribuie this great increase of the 

 produce, but the use of my newly constructed sub- 

 stitute lor a subsoil plough. The soil was stirred 

 to the depth ofjouneeu inches; by this means 

 the roots of the' carrots were enabled to strike 

 deep, and thereby not only find more nourishment, 

 but to overcome, in a great measure, the effects 

 of a very pinching drought. E. Phinney. 



Lexington, Mass. 



AN EXPEKIMKNT IN FATTENING WHITE AND 

 BLACK BERKSHIRE PIGS. 



From the Kentuclty Farmer. 



I send you an experiment made by Mr. Fan- 

 ning ("editor of the Tennessee Agriculturist) and 

 myselfin feeding pigs. This experiment grew 

 out of a controversy whether there were Berk- 

 shire hogs of any other color than those that are 

 almost black. I maintained that there were white 

 hog-; descended from the Berkshire lamily, that 

 were belter than the black ones, possessing early 

 maturity and fatteni/ig qualities not possessed by 

 the blacks. Mr. Fanning [iredicted that the 

 whiles would prove themselves far inferior to the 

 blacks, the ncplus ultra of the hog kind. 



I proposed leeding pigs six months lo test their 

 early maturity and laltening qualities, to which 

 he acceded, but objected to my leeding one from 

 a black Berkshire sow by my while boar. He 

 preferred that I Khould feed a cross of the white 

 Berkshire and Wohurn. 



Mr. Fanning selected two pitrs by his imported 

 black Berkshire boar Earl Spencer, dam the 

 imported black Berkshire sow Mary. 



1 selected two pigs by my imported white Berk- 

 shire boar Albion, dam my VVoburn sow Courte- 

 nay. 



Mr. Fanning weighed and commenced feeding 

 at two months old, and at six months his pigs 

 weighed, Sally B. 145, Black Rose 136 lbs. tfis 

 gain (supposing Black Rose weighed as much at 

 the commencement as Sally B. for he does not 

 give her weight at commencement,) gained in 

 four months 221 lbs. 



I did not commence full feeding of mine until 

 20th January, when ihey were 4 months and two 

 days old. Bernicc weighed 20ih January, 116 

 pounds, on the 20th February, 185 lbs., on the 

 22d xMarch, 254 lbs., on the 20ih April, 303 

 lbs., on the 20th May, 342 pounds. 



Bertha weighed on 20ih January, 4 months 

 and two days old, 108^ lbs., on the 20th February 

 174 lbs., on the 22d of March, 232 Ibe., on the 

 20th of April, 285 lbs., on 20th May, 340 lbs., 

 My pigs gained in sixty one days 261 lbs., forty 

 pounds more than Mr. Fanning's gained in one 

 hundred and twenty days. 



Mr. Fanning proposed keeping an account of 

 food given to each, but I find he has failed to do 



so, I had an account kept of ail that was given 

 mine, but no account of what was taken from 

 them again. For there was more food given 

 than they would eat, and before they were fed 

 again whatever had been left was given to other 

 pigs. Saml. D. Martin. 



Colbyville, Ky. 



OF BOTTOM HEAT. 



From Lindley's Horticulture. 



This term is, in common practice, made use ot" 

 only in those rases where the temperature of the 

 soil in which plants grow is artificially raised con- 

 siderably above that which we are acquainted 

 with in England ; and there seems to be a gene- 

 ral idea that such an artificial elevation of tempe- 

 rature is only necessary in a few special instances. 

 It has, however, been shown that the mean tem- 

 perature of that part of the soil in which plants 

 grow is imiversally something higher than that of 

 the air by which they are surrounded, and con- 

 sequently it appears that nature, in all cases, em- 

 ploys some decree of bottom heat as a stimulus 

 and protection* to vegetation. At the same time, 

 it must be admitted that, in some cases, the amount 

 is extremely small ; for Von Baer found Ranun- 

 culus nivalis and Oxyria reniformis flowering in 

 Nova Zembia, where the soil was not warmed 

 above 34^° ; and, in Jakutzsk, Erdmann states 

 that summer wheat, rye, cabbages, turnips, ra- 

 dishes, and potatoes are cultivated, although the 

 ground is not thawed above three feet in depth. 



That elevating the temperature of moist soil 

 produces an unusual degree of vigor in plants un- 

 accustomed in nature to such an elevation, is a 

 fact which requires no proof: it is alteeted by the 

 condiiion of vegetation round hot springs, and in 

 places artificially heated by subterraneous fires; 

 and this has probably been the cause of the em- 

 ployment of tan and hotbeds, by which means 

 bottom heat has beon generally obtained for rear- 

 ing delicate species, and especially seeds. But if 

 this stimulus acts in the first instance beneficially 

 in all cases alike, it soon becomes a source of mis- 

 chief in those species which are natives of cli- 

 mates where such terrestrial heat is unknown, the 

 latter " drawing up," as the saying is, becoming 



* That the warmth of the soil acts ar a protection to 

 plants may be easily understood. A plant is pene- 

 trated in all dirpctions by innumerable microscopic air 

 passae;es and chambers, so that there is a free commu- 

 nication between its extremities. It may therefore be 

 conceived that if, as necessarily happens, the air inside 

 the plant is in motion, the effect of warming the air 

 in the root? will be to raise the interfial temperature of 

 the whole individual ; and the same is true of its fluids. 

 Now, when the temperature of the soil is raised to 

 150° at noonday by the force of the solar rays, it will 

 retain a considerable part of that warmth during the 

 night; but the temperature of the air may fall to such 

 a degree that the excitability of a plant would be too 

 much and stiddenly impaired, if it acquired the cold- 

 ness of the medium surrounding it ; this is prevented, 

 we may suppose, by the warmth communicated to the 

 general system from the soil, through the roots ; so 

 that the lowering of the temperature of the air, by 

 radiation during the night, is unable to affect plants 

 injuriously, in consequence of the antagonist force 

 exercised by the heated soil. 



